Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason brings us her review of new singles from Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Angélica Garcia.
Artist: Angélica Garcia
Track: El Que (DAS Remix)
Angélica Garcia grabbed my attention when Craig Charles played her single Y Grito twice, he thought it was so good. Now granted it is only one and a half minutes long but I literally stopped in my tracks to listen.
Garcia signed to Partisan Records this autumn and the label have now released a remix of her latest single El Que by the musician and record producer DAS (aka Dave Sitek), known as a founding member of TV on the Radio, and for his work with other groups including Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Little Dragon, Foals and Weezer.
Anchored by delicate flourishes of strings and drum machines, the DAS remix takes Angélica’s slow-building hurricane of electronic pop and strips it down to its ghostly essence.
Garcia shares: “I loved meeting Dave. It felt like meeting someone from the same planet. I think it’s pretty cool that he constructed this remix using only my lead vocal as a reference. My favourite thing about the remix is that he was able to tap into the mysticism of the song but through a swirly, glittering lens.”
El Que represents an internal battle of the mind, with Angélica summoning reinforcements from another realm with the intensity of an exorcism. In fact, Angélica’s vocal performance took such an emotional and spiritual toll that she couldn’t sing for two days after recording. It turns out that these two tracks are in fact intertwined and were the first releases for the artist on Partisan.
Garcia explains the interconnection between the two songs: “Y Grito and El Que are tied together as they are both battle songs but while Y Grito is impulsive and underhealed El Que is the wise voice of mind over matter. They’re both together in the same arena, but they serve different roles. El Que knows when and where it use its energy while Y Grito is pure fight.”
New music coming and one to Watch in 2024.
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Artist: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes
Track: Brambles
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes share their new single Brambles the second song to be taken from their forthcoming album Dark Rainbow, set for release on 26 January 2024.
It’s a brooding track, beginning slow and calm full of passion, until it reaches the mid-point and the guitar is let loose, as if releasing frustration. It’s a song that probes for an answer as to why we give ourselves over to the pain that can come from relationships, Carter singing "Why does our love feel like brambles?"
The atmosphere perfectly matches the theme of the track as it ebbs and flows, reminiscent of the various emotions that are felt as we consider the need for the “perfect” relationship.
Frank Carter explains further: "Brambles is a melancholic bop born from the bramble thorns of love we let grow around us until we are tangled with no method of escaping unscathed. Like our neural pathways become stronger and deeper with each unconscious action, the thorns of love hook deeper and the brambles wrap tighter until we are barely recognisable and even our loved ones can no longer comfort us or lead us to safety for fear of being cut and torn themselves. An ode to the passion of love and a warning not to get lost in it when you go looking."
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As for me, Frank’s turned out much cooler, and it’s not even about the text, but about the way the video was made. Apparently Frank used professional video editing software or maybe he just has a better editor :)